North Vancouver is set to become the first city in Canada to require warning labels on gas pumps.
City council voted unanimously to support the initiative Monday night, but did not set a timeline for when the labels will appear.
The mandatory warnings will remind customers about the role gasoline production plays in climate change.
Local non-profit group Our Horizon proposed the labels, arguing one of the main challenges in tackling climate change is that the consequences of people’s actions are delayed.
“Studies of human behaviour show that without immediate feedback, people are less likely to take the appropriate behavioural changes,” B.C. campaign director Matt Hulse told council Monday.
“Our labels introduce feedback the very moment that you’re pumping gas.”
Labels designed by the group highlight various climate change-related dangers, including increased ocean acidification and the “likely risk of extinction” for nearly a third of animal species.
Our Horizon sold the initiative as the lowest-cost climate change intervention in the world.
West Vancouver council has also voted to support the labels, but stopped short of making them mandatory.
